Nightmare Dash: The Filly in the Ice
by LightningstrikeWarrior02
Summary: Rainbow Dash and Nightmare finally find the truth.


Princess Celestia nodded. "You two are sisters. On top of that, you are princesses."

"How in Equestria am I related to a weird smoke-cloud that somehow turned into a pony?" Rainbow Dash tilted her head.

"I will take you back in time and show you. Gather around, princesses." Princess Celestia's horn glowed bright gold. Rainbow Dash and Nightmare were engulfed by the light…

**1,500 YEARS AGO, AT CLOUDSDALE PALACE**

Voice rang through a vast hallway, filled only with suits of old armor and a painting of a tall mare and two fillies. The mare was smiling brightly, her deep purple eyes shining with warmth. Her mane fell in brilliant sparkling purple and gold curls, standing out against her pure white coat. She was an alicorn.

The first filly had a more determined, mischievous expression in her dark blue eyes, which matched perfectly with her black coat and her blue and black mane, curling just like her mother's mane.

The second filly seemed like the kind of filly that would never talk to anyone else, though it would be hard for her to blend in with a crowd. The bright cyan of her coat and the rainbow colors in her mane were known all across Equestria. Her eyes, a light blue, gave away her shy, modest personality.

Inscribed on a plaque above the painting were the words:

**Queen Solaria, Princess Nightmare, and Princess Rainbow**

"Alright, you two, come with me." Came a soft, kind voice. The mare in the painting, Queen Solaria, walked down the hallway towards the two fillies. "We're going to Canterlot to visit your cousins, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, later today. We need to get ready!"

"But I want to see all the artifacts!" Nightmare protested.

Rainbow just nodded in agreement.

"Okay, just a little look." Queen Solaria couldn't say no to the look in Nightmare's eyes as she begged to see the artifacts they kept in the castle.

"Come along now, Rainbow." Queen Solaria said to her youngest daughter.

They trotted down the hall and had just stepped into the room when a member of the Royal Guard ran in. "Queen Solaria, you are needed immediately!" He gasped, exhausted from running down the hallway.

"I'll be right there," Queen Solaria said to the messenger, then to her daughters she said, "Don't. Touch. Anything."

Then she walked down the hallway after the messenger.

Nightmare watched her go, then turned to her multi-colored sister with a mischievous grin on her face.

"Don't even think about it, Nightmare!" Rainbow lifted up a hoof to stop her, but Nightmare was already reaching for a black bracelet with purple gems on it.

"This thing is beautiful!" Nightmare grabbed it and slipped it onto her hoof.

"Get that thing off right now!" Rainbow cried.

Nightmare rolled her eyes and tried to pull it off, her eyes widening in fear. "Rainbow, I can't get it off! Get mom!"

"But, she-"

"GO!" Nightmare screamed.

As Rainbow turned to run, she noticed Nightmare's eyes beginning to change. They were growing lighter and more cat-like as Rainbow ran, screaming for her mother, tears in her eyes.

"Rainbow, what's going…" Queen Solaria stopped as she heard Nightmare scream.

"I told Nightmare not to touch anything, but she found this bracelet, and when she put it on…" Rainbow started sobbing.

"Let's go! You and your sister are in grave danger!" Queen Solaria galloped down the hall, Rainbow not far behind her.

When they got to the room where Nightmare had put the bracelet on, it was too late.

Nightmare was no longer. In her place was a cloud of black smoke with light blue, cat-like eyes. So much dark energy was in the room that Rainbow started feeling weak. She fell to the ground, Her mother turned to look at her, her eyes widening in shock.

"Rainbow, your eyes…" she whispered, then turned to face Nightmare.

As Rainbow closed her eyes, she caught a glimpse of her reflection in a piece of broken glass. Her eyes had turned a deep magenta color, the effect of Dark Magic upon the young filly. Over a thousand years, it would alter her personality as well.

"Nightmare, can you hear me?" Queen Solaria cried.

The cloud of smoke turned and blasted her with a laser that came from nowhere. As she fell she cast two spells to protect her daughters, one sending Nightmare to the moon, the other freezing Rainbow in a block of ice and turning her into a Pegasus.

"Rainbow…" Queen Solaria whispered as the ice enclosed her daughter.

Queen Solaria, the last thing she ever saw being her daughter trapped in ice with a look of horror on her face, closed her eyes for the last time.

Princess Celestia sat in her castle with her sister, waiting for her aunt and favorite cousins. Soon, a Pegasus, one of her aunt's Royal Guards, came running in.

"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, I come bearing terrible news concerning Queen Solaria and her daughters." He said.

"Well?" Princess Luna demanded, growing worried.

"They've gone missing. A strange cloud of smoke flew out of the castle and to the moon, and then the castle collapsed."

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna exchanged glances of shock and horror.

"No! My favorite cousins!" Princess Luna fell slowly to the floor and started sobbing.

"They were my favorite cousins too. Don't worry, Luna, we'll find them someday." Princess Celestia whispered gently, stepping forward to comfort her younger sister.

**1, 482 YEARS LATER**

Princess Celestia had almost forgotten about her aunt and cousins. One day, she was staring out the window in the throne room of Canterlot Castle, gazing at the moon where her sister was imprisoned. She had mourned her sister greatly ever since she had become Nightmare Moon. Thinking about that new name, part of it seemed familiar…

Her ears rose as she remembered. Nightmare was her younger cousin! She had gone missing so long ago…

Digging deeper into her memories, Princess Celestia came to a conclusion: The smoke had flown out of the room in the castle where the artifacts, even the bracelet, were kept, and had flown towards the moon. That smoke had been Nightmare, and she had been claimed by that bracelet.

Princess Celestia had to find the remains of her aunt and youngest cousin, if there were any left. She felt terrible as she remembered how young Rainbow had been, only four years old.

She made up her mind and flew out of the castle and towards Cloudsdale.

Trotting down the street, all of the Pegasi bowed before her, but she ignored them and continued on, until she came to a huge pile of ancient wreckage.

She dug through it, until she came to a shocking sight.

A pile of bones lay in one corner of an absolutely destroyed room full of artifacts. Tears in Celestia's eyes, she knew these were the remains of her favorite aunt.

Nearby was a block of ice. Inside the perfectly shaped block of ice was a filly. Her colors were extremely faded, to the point where her mane was a cream color and her coat was white. Despite the shocking changes, Princess Celestia knew that this was her cousin. Relief flooded through her, then worry that the filly had not survived. She ordered some Pegasi to come help her lift the block of ice up and to the nearest hospital.

She checked the young filly into the hospital and the staff went right to work trying to thaw the ice.

About 8 days and 10 freezing cold ponies later, the filly fell out of the ice and to the ground, not moving at all. Princess Celestia gasped, then she let it out as a sigh of relief as she saw that the filly was breathing. Ice cold, but breathing. She picked her cousin up and carried her to their hospital room.

Celestia stayed there for days, waiting for the filly to wake up. She remembered the times when her colors, now gone, were known across Equestria, and tears came to her eyes when she remembered Luna's reaction.

"Don't worry, we'll find them together." Celestia had said.

Now Luna was trapped in the moon.

Celestia heard a tiny, weak noise that brought her out of her memories. The filly was moving!

"Rainbow," Princess Celestia whispered gently, "You're safe. You can wake up now."

Rainbow's eyes flew open. Princess Celestia had been expecting her cousin's soft blue eyes, but her eyes were instead a rosy red. Princess Celestia stepped back. She knew what had done this. When the bracelet turned Nightmare into a ghost, it had tried to do the same to Rainbow, but had only been able to change her eye color and possibly alter her personality.

Rainbow stared past Celestia, gazing into the mirror on the other side of the room.

Princess Celestia stepped forward. "Rainbow?"

Rainbow turned away from the mirror and turned to look at Princess Celestia. "T-Tia? i-is that you? Where's Luna?"

Princess Celestia hung her head, not able to bring herself to tell the filly what had happened.

Anger burned in the filly's eyes. "Where am I? How long has it been? Where's Nightmare? Where's mommy? Why are my eyes red? Why isn't my mane rainbow-colored? TELL ME!" she shrieked.

"You're in the hospital, Rainbow." Princess Celestia spoke softly.

"Why?" Rainbow tilted her head.

"You've been frozen in ice for 1,482 years." The Princess answered.

Rainbow jumped up and walked slowly to the window, tears in her eyes as she saw how much her home had changed.

"No pony remembers me?" Rainbow asked.

"No pony, except for me and Luna. But, L-luna…Well, she…" Princess Celestia's voice faltered.

"Don't tell me she died too!" Rainbow started sobbing.

"No, she has just been imprisoned in the moon." Tia said.

"By who?" Rainbow asked.

"Me." Celestia whispered .

"Why? Why would you do that?" Rainbow screamed.

"Before I tell you, I must ask you something. What is the last thing you remember?"

"Nightmare put on this bracelet and turned into a cloud of evil smoke, and there was dark energy everywhere, and mom…" Rainbow trailed off as she remembered the fateful day her mother had died.

"Nightmare was sent to the moon, which Luna controlled. Luna was sad that everyone slept through her night. Nightmare amplified these feelings and Luna eventually allowed Nightmare to turn her into a wicked mare of darkness. She called herself Nightmare Moon. I was forced to banish her to the moon." Princess Celestia said.

"Where will I go? I have no family and you're too busy ruling over Equestria! And I miss my rainbow colors. Is there anything you can do to bring them back?" Rainbow asked.

"I think so." Princess Celestia lowered her horn until it rested on Rainbow's forehead. Color seeped out from where the horn touched Rainbow until her coat was cyan and her amazing rainbow-colored mane had returned.

"Yay!" Rainbow bounced in circles around her older cousin.

"I have already found a couple looking for a filly to adopt. If they accept you, you will live in Cloudsdale like a normal Pegasus, and you probably will not remember any of this." Princess Celestia smiled. "They should arrive at any minute."

"Princess Celestia, there are two ponies here waiting to talk to you." A Royal Guard said, standing in the doorway, then stepping aside to let two ponies, a mare and a stallion, inside. The mare was pink with a blue mane and purple eyes, and the stallion was grey with yellow eyes and a rainbow colored mane.

Rainbow dashed over to them. "Hi! I'm Rainbow!" she bounced up and down.

The mare smiled. "Hello, little one. My name is Firefly, and this is Spectrum Streak."

The stallion nodded. "You are a very fast little filly."

"Thanks!" Rainbow grinned.

Firefly and Spectrum Streak talked quietly to one another for a little bit, then turned to Princess Celestia.

Firefly said, "Princess Celestia, we would like to adopt Rainbow."

Spectrum Streak added, "And we would like to change her name."

Princess Celestia and Rainbow exchanged glances and then tilted their heads.

"What do you want to change my name to?" Rainbow looked up at them.

"Rainbow Dash!" Firefly replied.

"I love it! Yayayayayayayayayayayayayay!" Rainbow Dash bounced around them in circles.

**IN THE PRESENT**

"So that's really what happened, huh?" Rainbow Dash looked shocked that her life had been a lie. "They lied to me. You lied to me. Every pony in the whole world lied to me!"

"Shut up, Rainbow Dash." Nightmare glared at her.

Rainbow Dash and Nightmare started arguing back and forth.

"At least I don't go around telling ponies that their friends hate them!"

"Well, that wasn't my fault!"

"You're the one who wore the bracelet in the first place!"

"Oh, and you tried to stop me?"

"Yes! We did everything we could!"

"'Everything' obviously isn't enough!"

"You killed mom, for Pete's sake!"

Fluttershy flew up between the two arguing alicorns. "Girls! Stop it! Is that any way to talk to a long-lost sister? Apologize!"

Nightmare stared at Rainbow Dash coldly. "Why should I? She's a total loser. No wonder her friends abandoned her."

Rainbow Dash felt shocked and insulted. She bowed her head so that Nightmare couldn't see her tears as she flew away.

Rainbow Dash's former friends walked past Nightmare, completely ignoring her. As Princess Celestia walked by, Nightmare started to speak, but was interrupted by the princess. "You have a lot to think about. When I freed her from the ice, she grieved for you deeply."

When Pinkie Pie walked by, she said, "Look how sad Dashie is!" She pointed at Dashie, who had by now landed on a cliff and was staring out at the moon and crying.

Nightmare rolled her eyes. "Whatever." She saw Rainbow Dash turn and stare at her, rosy-red eyes seeming to glow, before looking away again. She remembered what they had said to eachother right before Nightmare possessed her.

_Fool! You really are stupid, aren't you? You betrayed your friends. Oh, that's right, you have none. Don't you hate them, Rainbow Dash?_

_Yes. _

_Good. Very good. They shall still suffer. This should be interesting._

_I hate you too, Nightmare. More than I hate them._

A new thought, almost a message, inside her head, came. It sounded like Rainbow Dash.

_Enjoy the coronation._


End file.
